"Despite the discovery of a large population in Myanmar, the situation for this pitta remains precarious since it occupies a very small range in which its habitat of flat, low-lying forest, which is targeted for the development of oil-palm plantations, is already severely fragmented. A very rapid population reduction is anticipated to occur in the near future as a result of land clearance. For these reasons it is listed as Endangered..."

"On the second leg of their journey, wildlife filmmakers Gordon Buchanan and Justine Evans, along with a team of scientists, head deep into the mountains of western Burma. This is where they hope to find the shy sun bear and two of the world's rarest and most beautiful cats: the Asian golden cat and the clouded leopard. Meanwhile, zoologist Ross Piper and the science team are on a mission to create a wildlife survey to present to the government of Burma to persuade them that these forests are so unique they must be protected. High on the forest ridges, Gordon finds evidence to suggest that Burma's wildlife might be in danger. Undercover filming in a border town known as the 'Las Vegas of the jungle' leads to a shocking discovery

"Myanmar's timber elephants and their handlers have survived wars and dictatorships, but will they survive democracy?" ...
Decades of military dictatorship has meant many aspects of Myanmar are frozen in time. One of those traditions dates back thousands of years - the timber elephant.
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Myanmar has around 5,000 elephants living in captivity - more than any other Asian country. More than half of them belong to a single government logging agency, the Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE). Elephants are chosen over machines because they do the least damage to the forest.
These elephants have survived ancient wars, colonialism and World War II while hard woods extracted by elephants in Myanmar once fed the British naval fleet. Yet today, Myanmar's timber elephant is under threat.
Once the richest reservoir for biodiversity in Asia, Myanmar's forest cover is steadily depleting and the government blames it on illegal loggers.
Now, the forest policy is being overhauled.
The Ministry for Environmental Conservation and Forestry has pledged to reduce its logging by more than 80,000 tonnes this fiscal year. Myanmar will ban raw teak and timber exports by April 1, 2014, allowing only export of high-end finished timber products.
MTE says that the private elephant owners contracted by the government will be the first on the chopping block. Saw Moo, a second generation private elephant owner, sees a bleak future for his stable of 20 elephants. He fears the family business will end in his hands and he may have to sell his elephants, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
101 East follows the oozies deep into Myanmar's forests, gaining unprecedented access to remote elephant logging camps and witnessing the extraordinary communication between elephants and men as they work.
But will the elephants and their handlers, who have survived kingdoms and military dictatorships, survive democracy and the open market? Is there a place for them in a changing modern world?..."

"The resurgence of the Gurney’s Pitta (pitta gurneyi) bird species continues. Widely considered extinct until the discovery of a population in Thailand in 1986, new research has shown that there could be as many as 35,000 Gurney’s Pitta territories in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi Division.
One territory generally represents a pair of birds, as Gurney’s Pitta is thought to be monogamous.
A paper published online last week in Bird Conservation International estimates there are somewhere between 9300 and 35,000 Gurney’s Pitta territories in Myanmar, although the figure probably lies around a mid-point of 20,000 territories, said a spokesperson from BirdLife International, an association of more than 100 conservation organisations..."

Between thick stands of bamboo in an impenetrable forest of Myanmar, the Arakan forest turtle reared its small brown head. The lucky team of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists was the first to find the species in the wild. Previously, the turtle had been known only by a few museum specimens and a few individuals in zoos.

* The Arakan forest turtle is discovered in dense bamboo forest in Myanmar
* Species previously known only by museum and captive specimens
Known only by museum specimens and a few captive individuals, one of the world’s rarest turtle species – the Arakan forest turtle – has been observed for the first time in the wild by scientists according to a new report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
The WCS team discovered five of the critically endangered turtles in a wildlife sanctuary in Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia. The sanctuary, originally established to protect elephants, contains thick stands of impenetrable bamboo forests and is rarely visited by people according to the report.

"The bamboo species Melocanna baccifera blossoms approximately every 48 years. This type of bamboo grows throughout a large area of Northeast India (primarily in Mizoram and Manipur States) as well as regions of Burma (mainly Chin State) and Bangladesh (Hill Tracts.) It densely covers valleys and hillsides in the rugged terrain of the region. The blossoming bamboo produces fruit, then dies off. During the fruiting stage of the cycle, forest rats feed on the bamboo fruits/seeds. Once the population of rats has stripped the forest of bamboo fruit/seeds, rat swarms invade farms and villages to devour crops and stored rice. This phenomenon, known as the Mautam, has historically resulted in mass starvation among indigenous peoples of the region where Melocanna baccifera bamboo grows. While the current Mautam bamboo/rat cycle as it affects Northeast India has been covered by journalists, and food aid is being provided there and in the Bangladesh Hill Tracts, the Mautam crisis across the borders in Burma is less well known. In Burma's Chin State, local groups are attempting to provide aid, but there is not yet a large scale organized relief effort in the Mautam affected areas.
The Project Maje resource report, "Rats and Kyats" is intended for journalists, aid workers and other researchers who may become interested in the bamboo/rat cycle as it affects Burma. News stories and documents are reproduced or linked in it, and there is also a links list of background information on the bamboo/rat cycle as it affects Mizoram, Manipur and Bangladesh."

"A ZOOLOGIST from Myanmar gave a presentation at the 13th International Bat Research Conference held in Mikolajki, Poland, from August 23-27.
Dr Mar Mar Thi, a professor at the Zoology Department of the University of Distance Education (Yangon), gave a presentation titled Bat Research in the Department of Zoology of Yangon University of Myanmar..."

"Preserving Burma’s forests and wildlife is a pursuit that goes beyond politics...
On his first expedition into the forests of northern Burma, Alan Rabinowitz and his team traveled 100 miles down the Chindwin River and then hiked for several days into the heart of Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary. There he began to hunt for signs of tigers, elephants, and the rare Sumatran rhino. Like many conservationists, he believed that Burma’s forests contain Southeast Asia’s healthiest wildlife populations. But he found Htamanthi’s forests strangely empty.
The next day his team met two Lisu hunters who admitted that they came each year for wildlife parts—tiger bones, bear gall bladders, even rhino horns before the animal disappeared—to sell to Chinese traders. "That’s indicative of what’s going on across the country," Rabinowitz says, as he sits down for an interview outside a camp shelter in Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan National Park. "Despite the beautiful amounts of forest, the wildlife is getting hammered."..."

"...Birds are described species by species; those species that have been illustrated, or are considered to be characteristic of Burma, have been dealt with under a greater number of headings, and printed in larger type, than species that are not often seen, or that are restricted to a small part of Burma. The only object of this arrangement is to save space. The information about each species in the first group is given under the following heads : English name of species, scientific name of species, author of the scientific name, typical locality associated with the name ; next, the subspecies (if any) are listed with the authors' names and typical localities ; next, the local names (if any) ; next, information about the bird under the headings—Identification, Voice, Habits and Food, Nest and Eggs, Status and Distribution. For the second group of birds, i.e. those printed in small type, the information under identification, voice, and habits and food, is telescoped under the heading Identification..."

"Building upon a newfound partnership with biologists in Myanmar (formerly Burma), scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society are working to update research on the numerous reptiles' species that inhabit the coastline and forests of one of southeast Asia's richest ecosystems..."